After exceeding expectations all year, Arizona State lost six of its last eight games following a 20-3 start and the star 6-foot-1 freshman from Freeport Aquin also hit a statistical slump.

But now they get a second chance as the No. 9-seeded Sun Devils (22-9) play No. 8 Vanderbilt in the first round of the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament 10 a.m. today in Toledo, Ohio, on ESPN2.

“It’s a really long season, especially nowadays when kids are here in the summer and training all fall and playing all winter,” coach Charli Turner Thorne said in a phone interview. “You usually hit a funky time for a week or two and work your way through it. We never hit our funky time (until the last couple of weeks). You just can’t do that in February. It’s too late into the season to get into a funk, but we did.”

Brunner, who led Aquin to back-to-back Class 1A state titles the last two years, averaged 7.5 points and 6.2 rebounds and was named honorable mention on the Pac-12’s all-freshman team. Brunner reached double digits in scoring 11 times, but only once in her last 10 games, and seven times in rebounds, but only once in the last 13 games.

“I need to adjust better,” Brunner said. “When you play someone the second time around, they have you scouted inside and out. They take away what you do. I learned the hard way I have to adjust quicker to what people are giving me and what they are taking away.”

A year after having its 13-year postseason string snapped with a 13-18 season, a young Arizona State team was picked to finish ninth in the Pac-12. Instead, the Sun Devils were nationally ranked almost all year and, even with their poor finish, took fourth in the conference.

“Game in and game out, everybody was gunning for us,” Turner Thorne said. “It was a lot to take. We just wore down a little bit.”

But Brunner and Turner Thorne said the Sun Devils will be rejuvenated for the NCAA Tournament.

“This slump has made us even more aware of how mentally tough you have to be,” said Brunner, who ranks second on the team in rebounding, tied for fourth in scoring and third in shooting percentage (49.4 percent). “We had too many letdowns in key moments, but we’re all close. Normally we pick each other up. The last couple of games we didn’t do that, but we’ve gone back to that.

Page 2 of 2 - “We’re all really eager. At this point, we’re zero and zero again. It’s a whole new season and everyone is out for blood. We’re eager for another chance to prove to people we’re a good team. Everyone dreams of this opportunity their whole life. To actually be in the tournament and play against the best competition in the country is a real cool feeling.”

Turner Thorne expects Brunner to be up to the challenge. No matter how much Vanderbilt and future opponents scout her.

“She is just going to get better and better,” Turner Thorne said. “It won’t matter if she’s scouted. She’ll have a counter for this and a counter for that.”